David Cronenberg
6 titles · american genre
A scientist tests his teleportation pods on himself in The Fly and comes out sharing his genome with a housefly, then spends the film documenting his own decay. The body is where the ideas land. Rage becomes children in The Brood, telepathy becomes an industrial weapon in Scanners, a game console plugs into the base of the spine in eXistenZ. The tone stays clinical throughout, which is what makes it hard to watch.
Signature
- Transformation and disease staged as practical effects.
- Technology entering the body through a new orifice.
- Clinical, unhurried camera at moments of maximum revulsion.
- Ideas argued through anatomy.
fit
Lineage
Earlier films these works draw on, and the films they went on to shape — each link checked to name a film that actually came first.